No More Heroes Version Differences - Heroes' Paradise Score Attack and Dreams/Nightmares
20NMH Version Differences Guide: https://www.speedrun.com/nmh/guide/61qu8
NMH Version Differences Playlist: • No More Heroes Version Differences
Score Attack: 0:00
Network Ranking (snippet): 5:15
Armchair Dreams/Nightmares: 6:03
All footage from the North American PS3 version.
While my general opinion of NMH: Heroes' Paradise is pretty dismal, I'll begrudgingly admit that Score Attack is a competently-executed addition. Like the NMH2 dream bosses ( • No More Heroes Version Differences - ... ) and the DLC ( • NMH: Heroes' Paradise (PS3) - DLC Sho... ), this mode was added to the International version of HP, and cannot be found in the original JP PS3/360 release.
While this feature is clearly meant to invoke the spirit of NMH2's Deathmatch, right down to using the same music, the overall implementation is quite different. Whereas Deathmatch was centered around time attacking, killing bosses as fast as possible, Score Attack is focused on getting high scores based on your performance/actions. The game adds up your points across all bosses for a total high score.
Not only that, there is a Network Ranking online leaderboard, and it still works! For the sake of brevity, I only included a small snippet. For more information, check out this unlisted supplementary video: • No More Heroes Version Differences - ...
I included two Dr. Peace fights in this video. I originally planned on only showing the first fight, but after realizing that I played it as a strict time attack fight, I recorded another fight to show the different ways of getting points. I recorded the fights a day apart, but I stitched everything together in such a way that makes the video look like a single take. Likewise, the leaderboard snippet comes from the second day of recording as it takes time for the board to update.
General details:
-Score Attack unlocks after beating the full game, and includes the NMH2 dream bosses.
-Speed Buster is not included in this mode.
-The difficulty seems to be based on Mild; they have more health than Sweet, but less than Bitter, and parrying here is forgiving.
-Travis always wears his default outfit.
-Travis is seemingly fully upgraded according to the pause screen, but the HUD for the heart isn't maxed out. Not sure about this one...
-Here is an album showing Travis's stats with each katana: https://imgur.com/a/nmh-heroes-paradise-score-attack-screenshots-IgHFltd
-There is a Retry option in the menu.
-While you can choose between the four katanas, they lack their extra Naomi upgrades. Most notably, the Mk-III does not have infinite battery.
-Side note: parrying with the non-infinite Mk-III is a bit weird in HP as it doesn't drain your battery the same way it does on Wii.
-You cannot use the DLC katanas.
-Fun fact: you can fight Henry with a katana other than the Mk-III.
-There are several ways to earn points, the most obvious of which are the time bonus and health ("energy") bonus.
-There are extra bonuses from doing the following actions: doing wrestling moves ("Nice Throw"), getting the first strike of the match ("First Attack"), and finishing the fight with a full charge attack ("Full Charge Kill").
-Each katana has a different score multiplier ("Weapon Bonus"): Blood Berry - 1.5 | Tsubaki - 1.35 | Mk-II - 1.00 | Mk-III - 1.15
-In practice, the Mk-III is so strong even without infinite battery that it tends to be the best choice no matter what.
-As can be seen between the two fights, faster times tend to get the higher scores, but what can you do?
-There are trophies for reaching certain total high score goals.
Due to its similar nature to the Score Attack, I included another feature found in all versions of Heroes' Paradise: Dreams/Nightmares from Travis's Armchair. Dreams is a cutscene viewer, letting you rewatch cutscenes with whatever outfit/weapon you please, though it strangely omits the Henry/ending cutscenes on a NG+ file. Nightmares is a boss rematch mode. Because you access this feature from a regular file, you can use any combination of clothes/weapons/upgrades to fight a boss; for the sake of example, I fought Shinobu with the DLC Cross Saver (Saber) on my 100% Sweet file. Ironically, you can't fight the NMH2 dream bosses in the Nightmares, and Speed Buster is not included, either. Like in Score Attack, you can fight Henry with katanas other than the Mk-III, and there's a trophy/achievement in the original JP PS3/360 release that requires you to fight all bosses with the Blood Berry, including Henry.
As shocking as it is for me to praise Heroes' Paradise, these added features aren't half-bad. Nothing mind-blowing, but servicable enough. As modest as these additions may be, they don't mess with the game's core integrity too much, which is more than can be said about the rest of the experience.
*****
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